


A heart not so cold

by vivaldis_lover



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Comfort, Gen, Keith and Lance have the honest conversation they need, Late Night Conversations, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 04:46:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10937289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivaldis_lover/pseuds/vivaldis_lover
Summary: "He was going back to his room, when he heard a sob. He stopped in the middle of the corridor, trying to understand where the sound came from. There was a second one. It was quite near, otherwise he wouldn’t have heard it. It took him a while, but he eventually found the source, in a recess of the wall.Keith, still fully clothed, with red and puffy eyes, trying to find a part of his handkerchief that was not completely wet and dirty."-A first attempt from both parties to improve their relationship





	A heart not so cold

Lance woke up in the middle of the night, with a great need to go to the bathroom. He put on his bunny slippers and went looking for the toilet.

Only a couple of days had passed since Shiro’s disappearance, an event that had shaken everyone on the ship. Luckily his sleep hadn’t been affected. Keith, though, had been particularly reclusive those days. He was there when they needed to take action, but most of the time he couldn’t be found. He seemed to be particularly affected by Shiro’s absence. It was obvious that the two shared a deep bond, but Lance hadn’t expected Keith to be that shocked. He thought of him as a hothead, but in his personal relationships Keith had always appeared quite cold.

He was going back to his room, when he heard a sob. He stopped in the middle of the corridor, trying to understand where the sound came from. There was a second one. It was quite near, otherwise he wouldn’t have heard it. It took him a while, but he eventually found the source, in a recess of the wall.

Keith, still fully clothed, with red and puffy eyes, trying to find a part of his handkerchief that was not completely wet and dirty.

“Woah, dude, what happened? Nightmare?” he asked.

Keith sniffled and turned his head. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

Lance crossed his arms, skeptical. “I find you crying in the middle of the night like my little sister and I’m supposed to believe that nothing’s wrong?”

“Go away, Lance, it’s none of your business!” snapped Keith.

“Okay, no need to shout!” he said and turned away.

He walked round the corner, but then he stopped there and ruminated for a while. He didn’t want to act like an overprotective mum, but Keith had looked really vulnerable and in need to talk. He sighed. He was the older brother in his family, after all, and the instinct to intervene got the best of him.

_“Damn it.”_

He came back to Keith and started to talk before he could say anything. “Forget what I said about you reminding me of my little sister, okay? I phrased it wrong,” he said.

“It’s okay. I was not offended,” mumbled Keith.

“Whatever. The point is, if I leave you now like this, I feel guilty.”

Between a sob and the other, Keith sighed, but didn’t protest. Lance took this as a permission and sat beside his teammate.

“Do as I say. Now, breathe in. Very slowly.”

Keith did as he said, as Lance counted in his mind.

“Now breathe out. Slowly again.”

He instructed him to do so a few more times. Keith was weirdly obedient, probably because of the tiredness and his altered emotional state. In his normal state, he would have probably questioned more what Lance was making him do.

After a while, he started to calm down. His eyes were still shiny with tears, but at least the sobbing had stopped.

“Better?” asked Lance.

“Better,” said Keith, a bit surprised. “Thank you.”

“You know, what I said before, about my sister, was only half a joke. I helped her a bit, when she started having problems with boys. First crushes and things like these. She was always crying, so it was a good idea to learn how to help someone calm down. It was not to make fun of you. This time,” admitted Lance.

Keith listened with interest. It was the first time he learned about Lance’s family. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“Well, it’s not like you could know. This is the first time we have a chance to talk, only us two.”

It was true. They had never had a face to face. Mostly because Keith was sure Lance disliked him, so there was no reason for him to seek Lance outside of a mission. They sat quietly for a while, unsure about what to say.

“Sorry you had to see this,” said Keith.

“Are you joking?” replied Lance. “Dude, I can finally see that you’re human! You don’t have to apologize for that.”

He snorted. “What do you mean with that?”

“Sorry? Amazing fighter pilot, skilled in martial arts, survived in the desert for a year? Like, the only thing I could beat you at is probably gardening, and that’s only because you lived in the desert and we have a kitchen garden.”

“I actually grew my own plants,” admitted Keith.

Lance threw his hands in the air, looking defeated. “See?!”

It was late at night, they were both tired and Keith was not at his best, and that probably facilitated the lowering of their defenses.

“Do you miss Shiro?” asked Lance.

“I do. I’m worried about what might have happened to him, if he’s alive at all. I don’t feel suited to be your leader. I’m not like him. He always did a better job.”

 “Well, duh, of course you’re not like him. Shiro’s out of this world. You can only dream of being as good as him,” said Lance, with the voice of someone who’s stating the obvious.

He glared at him.

“Don’t look at me like that, it’s true. But I don’t think there’s someone who could do a better job than you. Apart from me, of course.”

“There he goes,” mumbled Keith.

Lance went silent. They listened to the muffled sounds coming from the engine. It almost felt like they were the only two people on the ship.

Despite his cocky statement, Lance didn’t hold a strong desire to be the leader. He was more than happy to stand out, but he didn’t want to take the lead. Too many responsibilities. And he loved Blue too much to leave her for another lion.

“I can’t believe it!” exclaimed Lance.

“What?”

“We’re having a bonding moment,” he said.

Keith glared at him. “I hope you won’t forget this one.”

Lance looked at him perplexed. The he remembered.

“Don’t tell me you got offended over that!”

“I did!” said Keith, leaving Lance speechless. “We had a moment where we acted like actual teammates and the next day you dismissed it and acted like you didn’t remember anything! You hurt me! And you shut me out.”

Lance didn’t know what to say. The last thing he was expecting was to see Keith still fixated on that episode. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. He only then realized that that had been an attempt from Keith to reach out to him. And he had been too thick to understand it. After that Keith had probably decided that it was not worth trying to make a connection with Lance, if he was not willing to do it too.

Guilt stung him.

“I’m- Look, I’m sorry,” he said. He was suddenly very careful to what he was saying.

Keith didn’t reply. The atmosphere was tenser, now.

Lance’s mind was working furiously. He wondered how far he could go with an apology, without revealing why he had always been so defensive around Keith. He didn’t feel ready to show him his insecurities, not yet.

“Okay, I shouldn’t have said that. I had no idea it would have stuck with you for that long. I speak without thinking,” he tried to explain.

“Thank you for apologizing,” said Keith. “That time, I just wanted for us to get along better. All the time, not only during battle – although, now we can’t even do that, apparently. But you seem really adamant about me being just your rival and nothing else.”

Lance avoided his eyes. He was tempted to spill out everything, even though he didn’t want to appear weak in front of Keith. As he thought about it, he reminded himself that he had just found Keith crying in the middle of the night, because of Shiro’s absence, at his most vulnerable. He could allow himself to be a little vulnerable too.

 _“Fuck it,”_ he thought. _“He was crying in front you. Just say it.”_

“I feel threatened,” he admitted. He was finally saying it out loud. He was being honest about his insecurities with someone who wasn’t a weird alien creature that looked like a dog.

“By me?” asked Keith, incredulous.

“By you. You’re very skilled and I’m replaceable.”

Keith’s mind went back to what Lance had said earlier. _“I can finally see that you’re human!”_. In a way he was flattered, but the opinion Lance had about him had jeopardized their relationship.

At least until that moment.

“Shut up, okay? No one is replaceable in this team. Not Pidge, not Hunk, not you. Also, you and your lion have an incredible bond. Blue basically chose you.”

Lance looked at him shyly. “You really think so?”

“I do.”

He smiled. “Thanks.”

They listened to the humming of the engines once again. Lance thanked his bladder for making him go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and allowing he and Keith to have such an honest conversation. He couldn’t imagine how this exchange could have taken place during daytime. Some things were easier to say in the darkness.

“So, we ended up from you comforting me, to me comforting you?” observed Keith.

“Seems so,” said Lance.

They had no idea what time it was. Not that they cared too much about it anymore. After a few seconds of silence, Keith asked Lance to talk more about his family and Lance happily obliged. Having a large family was something Keith had never experimented and Lance’s anecdotes were a funny insight about that life. He went on talking for a while, but after a while tiredness had the best of him. He yawned mid-sentence.

“Sorry,” he said, and stretched. “I think it’s better if I go back to sleep.”

Keith got up. “Yeah, me too.”

“Yes, try to sleep. A sleep deprived leader is not a good leader.”

They walked to their rooms side by side, as Lance finished telling a funny story about one of his cousins. He then stood awkwardly in front of Keith’s room, wondering if he could try and say something funny or just say goodnight.

“So…” he said. “If you can’t sleep again, wake me up. Maybe next time I will offer you a back massage. To make you relax.”

“I think I’ll have to decline.”

“Think about it, first. You might enjoy it.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I gave it a shot and decided to try and write for Voltron. Hope you like it!


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